Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More




Persona Or Ideas?

Santa Rosa, California, USA

March 12, 2012



The medium of transformation is the spoken word.

When you really get  transformation, its medium as the spoken word is suddenly so ... well ... obvious. Whenever you get something obvious which wasn't obvious before, you see it was always there yet somehow overlooked entirely, not noticed until that moment. It's like birds don't notice air  - they just fly in it. It's like fish don't notice water  - they just swim in it. Similarly we human beings  don't notice the spoken word - we just live  in it (yes we do). The spoken word is so intrinsic to who we really are ie it's so intrinsic to what distinguishes us as a species  from all other species, that in order to share transformation, all that's required is you speak.

In this regard, it's been said all that's required for you to share transformation is to stand up and, coming from transformation, read the dictionary or the telephone directory out loud for people. It goes without saying anyone coming from transformation who stands up and reads the dictionary or the telephone directory out loud for people, will create a stir even for people not in the know. They may say things like "There's something about that guy ... but I just don't know what it is  ...".

Actually that's not as far fetched as it might sound. It's happened. But here's the thing: when it happens, it works best for people already in the know - in other words, when preaching to the choir. With people not already in the know, something else, something more, some more substance  is required. Random alphabetized words, names, and numbers won't suffice.

This is when the ideas  which comprise the rich body of distinctions which is transformation, come into play. If the spoken word is the medium of transformation, then the ideas which comprise the rich body of distinctions which is transformation, are the product's deliverables. As long as I have it that "There's something about that guy ... but I just don't know what it is ...", I can't really own  transformation myself because it's all over there  with that guy. But if I receive  the product's deliverables, if I receive the ideas which comprise the rich body of distinctions which is transformation, if I make them my own, then I transform my own life.

When I compose these Conversations For Transformation, I'm very, very  clear about the men and the women who blazed the trail before me. It's more than simple respect  for my source, for my coaches, for my mentors, and for my family and my friends and my associates that I acknowledge them this way. It's a matter of telling the plain truth. For example, I would have serious doubts about the credibility and the integrity of Yuri Gagarin if, while accepting kudos  for being the first man to travel into space, he didn't acknowledge all the people of Roskosmos, the Soviet space agency, for putting him there.

I may be bold but I'm not a lone gun. Almost everything I bring forth in these Conversations For Transformation would never have been distinguished if it weren't for an interaction or a conversation with someone who came before me who spoke transformation for me (and, by the way, with  me), allowing me to own it and make it my own.

Transformation originally came to me from my source, from my coaches, from my mentors, and from my family and my friends and my associates. And yet  transformation isn't them and neither is it me. Transformation is no particular persona, figurehead, representative, or oracle. Transformation is the ideas which comprise the rich body of distinctions which is transformation. Once you've taken on recreating for yourself  the ideas which comprise the rich body of distinctions which is transformation, then transformation is yours.

If I'm powerful and effective sharing transformation with you, it's because I'm powerful and effective sharing the ideas which comprise the rich body of distinctions which is transformation with you in a way which allows you to recreate them as your own. And if, along the way, I've also shared my source, my coaches, my mentors, and my family and my friends and my associates, in other words the persona from whom I got transformation with you, that's a simple courtesy to them. It's a sign of respect. We all know a player  catches the ball and runs with it. But I say a mensch  acknowledges whom he got it from.

I intend secondarily that you get these persona from these Conversations For Transformation. But I intend primarily that you get the ideas. When you get the ideas, you can then recreate them as your own. When you recreate them as your own and make them work for you, then you have transformation.

If I sing "And Your Bird Can Sing" for you, I'll be seriously amiss if I present it as my own composition without crediting The Beatles for writing it. However once I properly acknowledge The Beatles as the song's source, my intention in singing it for you would be you'd create value for yourself from my rendition of their music.

This, for me, is also the correct balance between the persona of transformation and the ideas of transformation.



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